Charlotte Posenenske

Charlotte Posenenske, née Mayer was a German artist associated with the minimalist movement who predominantly worked in sculpture, but also produced paintings and works on paper. Posenenske created series of sculptures that explored systems and structures derived from mass production and standardization.

Posenenske worked in a variety of mediums, her practice becoming more abstract through the course of the 1960s. After early, improvised "art informel" paintings made with a palette knife or spray gun, she in 1967 and 1968 turned to industrially inspired sculptures of aluminum, steel or cardboard, whose modular components could be combined and reproduced at will. While other artists of the period worked in multiples, where a finite edition of a work could be produced, Posenenske worked in series, meaning that there was no limit to the editions. Her approach toward art was highly democratic. Posenenske rejected the commercial art market, offering her work for sale at its material cost. Reconstructions authorised by the artist's estate are not replicas, and they are outwardly identical to the original prototype. Only the certificate differentiates the unsigned work from other commodities.

Posenenske's Vierkantrohre Serie (Square Tube Series) consisted of industrially manufactured steel tubes similar in appearance to air conditioning shafts. Her work is similar to ready-mades in appearance, but Posenenske directed production of materials in her work process. Posenenske was an early proponent of inviting interactivity to her artwork through choreographed performances and audience participation. She invited artists and curators to freely rearrange and add to her work in several exhibitions.

In 1968 Posenenske published a statement in the journal Art International referencing the reproducibility of her works, and her desire for the concept and ownership of the piece to be accessible:

I make series

because I do not want to make individual pieces for individuals,

in order to have elements combinable within a system,

in order to make something that is repeatable, objective,

and because it is economical.

The series can be prototypes for mass-production.

[...]

They are less and less recognisable as "works of art."

The objects are not intended to represent anything other than what they are.

Poseneske stopped working as an artist in 1968, no longer believing that art could influence social behavior or draw attention to social inequalities. She retrained as a sociologist and became a specialist in employment and industrial working practices, particularly assembly line production, until her death in 1985. During this period of self-imposed exile Posenenske refused to visit any exhibitions, and did not show her work.

Text courtesy of Wikipedia, 2023